Neo-Freudian Approaches to
Personality
Neo-Freudians
Freud followers
Adapted and Modified psychoanalytic theories
Create new theories of personality.
Agreed with Freud that childhood experiences matter.
Neo-Freudians
Adler, Horney, Jung, and Erikson
Expanded on Freud’s ideas by focusing on the importance of
sociological and cultural influences in addition to biological
influences.
Neo-Freudians
Alfred Adler
The first to explore and develop a comprehensive social theory of the
psychodynamic person and coined the idea of the “inferiority complex.”
Erik Erikson
The psychosocial theory of development, which suggested that an
individual’s personality develops throughout their lifespan based on a
changing emphasis on different social relationships.
Neo-Freudians
Carl Jung
The collective unconscious and the persona.
Karen Horney
Focused on unconscious anxiety stemmed from early childhood
experiences of unmet needs, loneliness, and/or isolation.
Neo -Freudians Ideas
Alfred Adler Inferiority complex
Erik Erikson Psychosocial theory of development
Carl Jung Collective unconscious and the persona
Karen Horney Unconscious anxiety
Alfred Adler
Individual Psychology
Focuses on our drive to compensate for feelings of inferiority
Proposed the concept of the inferiority complex
Person’s feelings that they lack worth and don’t measure
up to the standards of others of society.
Alfred Adler
The importance of social connections
Childhood development as emerging through social
development rather than via the sexual stages.
Birth order had a significant and predictable impact on a
child's personality, and their feeling of inferiority.
Alfred Adler : Books
The Science of Living
Social Interest : A Challenge to Mankind
The Pattern of Life
Understanding Human Nature.
Superiority and Social Interest
The Education of Children
Alfred Adler
Three fundamental social tasks that all of us must experience:
Occupational tasks (careers)
Societal tasks (friendship)
Love tasks (finding an intimate partner for a long-term
relationship).
Alfred Adler : Limitation
Lack of empirical evidence and comparative analysis.
Erik Erikson
The social relationships are important at each stage
of personality.
An individual’s personality develops throughout the
lifespan based on a series of social relationships.
Erik Erikson : Psychosocial Theory
Eight stages, each of which represents a conflict or
developmental task.
The development of a healthy personality and a sense of
competence depend on the successful completion of each
task.
Erik Erikson : Books
Childhood and Society
Identity Youth and Crisis
Identity and Life Cycle
The Life Cycle completed
Gandhi’s Truth
Erickson Stages of Social and Emotional Development
Age Stage Psychological Crisis Virtue
0-1 Infancy Trust/Mistrust Hope
1-3 Toddler Autonomy/Shame or Doubt Will/Determination
3-6 Play age Initiative/Guilt Purpose
6-12 School age Industry/inferiority Competency
12-20 Adolescent Identity/Role confusion Fidelity
20-29 Early Adulthood Intimacy/Isolation Love
30-65 Adulthood Generativity/Stagnation Care
65 above Mature Age Integrity/Despair Wisdom
Carl Jung
Theory of personality : Analytical psychology
The collective unconscious ( Freud’s personal unconscious )
holding mental patterns, or memory traces, that are common
to all of us
These ancestral memories : Archetypes
Archetypes : Represented by universal themes as expressed
through various cultures’ literature and art, as well as people’s
dreams.
Carl Jung
Proposed the concept of the persona
Persona : A kind of “mask” that we adopt based on both our
conscious experiences and our collective unconscious.
Persona : A Compromise between who we really are (our true
self) and what society expects us to be;
We hide those parts of ourselves that are not aligned with
society’s expectations behind this mask.
Jung's Theory of Personality Types
Human Psyche : Three parts
The ego
Personal unconscious
Collective unconscious.
Jung's Theory of Personality Types
• Extraversion vs. Introversion.
• Sensation vs. Intuition.
• Thinking vs. Feeling.
• Judging vs. Perceiving.
Carl Jung : Books
The Red Book
Memories ,Dreams ,Reflections
Modern man in search of a Soul
Psychology and Alchemy
Psychology and the Unconscious
Synchronicity
Karen Horney
Theory of neurotic needs
Focused on “unconscious anxiety”.
Three styles of coping that children adopt in relation to
anxiety
Moving toward people
Moving away from people
Moving against people.
Karen Horney
Freud has been widely critiqued for his almost exclusive focus
on men and for what some perceive as a condescension
toward women
Horney disagreed with the Freudian idea that girls have “penis
envy” and are jealous of male biological features.
Karen Horney
Any jealousy is most likely due to the greater privileges that
males are often given
The differences between men’s and women’s personalities are
due to the dynamics of culture rather than biology.
She suggested that men have “womb envy” because they
cannot give birth.
Karen Horney : Books
Self Analysis
Feminine Psychology
New ways in Psychoanalysis
Our Inner Conflicts
Final Lectures
Penis envy is a stage theorized by Sigmund Freud regarding female
psychosexual development.
Young girls experience anxiety upon realization that they do not have
a penis.
Freud considered this realization a defining moment in a series of
transitions toward a mature female sexuality and gender identity.
Womb envy, the envy that men may feel of the biological functions of
the female (pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding).
Each term is analogous to the concept of female
penis envy presented in Freudian psychology.
Adler ( 1870-1937)
Horney – (1885-1952)
Jung – 1879- 1961
Erikson- 1902-1994